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CHAPTER 31, THE VIETNAM WAR (1954 – 1975)
The Second Indochina War, 1954-1975, grew out of the long conflict between France and Vietnam. In July 1954, after one hundred years of colonial rule, France was forced to leave Vietnam. Communist forces under the direction of General Vo Nguyen Giap defeated the allied French troops at Dien Bien Phu, a remote mountain outpost in the northwest corner of Vietnam. This decisive battle convinced the French that they could no longer maintain their Indochinese colonies and Paris quickly sued for peace -
The Geneva Accords divide Vietnam in half at the 17th parallel
The Geneva Conference of 1954 was a diplomatic conference in which representatives of the United States, France, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, the Associated States of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, North Korea, and South Korea met in Geneva, Switzerland, to deal with two complicated international issues: the Indochina War in South East Asia and the unification of South Korea and North Korea after the war. The part of the conference on the Korean question ended -
President Johnson declares he will not "lose Vietnam" during a meeting with Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in Washington.
While in a meeting with Henry Cabot Lodge, ambassador of America in Vietnam, in Washington Presidant Johnson declares he will not "lose Vietnem" to communism while he was in office. he didnt want to see Vietnam go the way China had. -
Diem overthrown
In November 1963, President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam was deposed by a group of Army of the Republic of Vietnam officers who disagreed with his handling of the Buddhist crisis and, in general, his increasing oppression of national groups in the name of fighting the communist Vietcong. -
JFK and Ngo Dinh Diem meet
The Kennedy administration had been aware of the coup planning,[3] but Cable 243 from the United States Department of State to U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., stated that it was U.S. policy[4] not to try to stop it. Lucien Conein, the Central Intelligence Agency’s liaison between the US embassy and the coup planners, told them that the US would not intervene to stop it -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution (officially, Asia Resolution, Public Law 88-408) was a joint resolution which the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964 in response to a sea battle between the North Vietnamese Navy's Torpedo Squadron 135[1] and the destroyer USS Maddox on August 2 and an alleged second naval engagement between North Vietnamese boats and the US destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy on August 4 in the Tonkin Gulf; both naval actions are known collectively as the Gulf of Ton -
Operation Rolling Thunder begins
On this date (March 2, 1965), Operation Rolling Thunder begins with more than 100 United States Air Force jet bombers striking an ammunition depot at Xom Bang, 10 miles inside North Vietnam. -
Massive anti-war demonstrations held in the U.S.
Massive demonstrations are held throughout the US against the war. Protestors in New York City's Central Park, burn 200 draft cards. -
MyLai Massacre
on March 16, 1968, conducted by a unit of the United States Army. All of the victims were civilians and most were women, children (including babies), and elderly people. Many of the victims were raped, beaten, tortured, and some of the bodies were found mutilated. -
President Nixon stuns Americans by announcing U.S. and South Vietnamese incursion into Cambodia
President Nixon stuns Americans by announcing a U.S. and South Vietnamese incursion into Cambodia in response to continuing Communist gains against Lon Nol's forces. The incursion is and is also intended to weaken overall NVA military strength as a prelude to U.S. departure from Vietnam
